UNITED NATIONS, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - Amid political transition in Iraq, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday welcomed the movement toward the formation of a new government.
Ban noted that “Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abbadi now has the important task of forming a broad-based government, acceptable to all components of Iraqi society,” and said “it is imperative that the security forces refrain from intervening in the political process.”
Noting the advances of the Islamic State (IS), Ban said he is “profoundly dismayed by its barbaric acts, including accounts of summary executions, boys forcibly taken from their homes to fight, girls abducted or trafficked as sex slaves.”
Speaking of the Yezidis ethnic minority and others, trapped on Mout Sinjar, Ban said that “air drops of food and water are reaching some of the trapped people” but that “even when people manage to find a way out, they remain exposed to searing heat and a perilous odyssey.”
Ban concluded on Iraq by condemning “in the strongest possible terms the systematic persecution of individuals from minority populations and those, who refuse the extremist ideology of 'IS' and associated armed groups.”
